


The perfect life, the perfect wife

by Kissed_by_Circe



Series: Where Women Become Queens [2]
Category: The Tudors (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Beta Wanted, Eating Disorders, Past Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Stalking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-16
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-04-01 05:31:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 6,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13991508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kissed_by_Circe/pseuds/Kissed_by_Circe
Summary: Hal Tudor dreams of the perfect live, complete with a perfect wife, three perfect children, the perfect house and the perfect career, becoming senator, and maybe, president. The only thing missing now is a girlfriend to start a family with.Hal Tudor and the seven women that changed his life in some way or the other.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Whitehall University](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5543693) by [boleynqueens](https://archiveofourown.org/users/boleynqueens/pseuds/boleynqueens). 



> I changed most of the names here, because honestly? Somehow everyone was named Henry or Katherine/Catherine back then? So I added a list of all names (with the real life counterpart) at the end. 
> 
> Also, English's not my first language, so please forgive me any grammar/spelling mistake I might make :)

Hal Tudor dreams of the perfect live, complete with a perfect wife, three perfect children, the perfect house and the perfect career, becoming senator, and maybe, president. It’s nothing out of the impossible, he has good chances as the son of a governor, the heir of the advertising agency ‘Semiplena’, a student with straight As, a political science bachelor at age 21. 

His career is planned to the last detail, his grandfather’s house in DC is freshly renovated and waiting for him. The only thing missing now is a girlfriend to start a family with.


	2. Lina Trastamara

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> According to Giles Tremlett, Catherine had some sort of eating disorder, which I wanted to include here – I know next to nothing about eating disorders, so I hope that I didn’t write something wrong ☹ sorry in advance for any spelling/grammar mistakes, English isn’t my first language :)

Lina Trastamara is the girl of his dreams with her soft waves of red golden hair, her good connections and her place in the US Olympic gymnastics squad. Her mother owns a law firm in Sacramento and donates millions for Hal’s social projects. They meet at her sister’s wedding – Phil, the groom, is an actor, famous for his role in some soap opera, and Hal’s little sister Rosie wants an autograph – and it’s love at first sight, bumping into each other on the dancefloor under a sky of thousand lanterns and spending the night with champagne and laughter. Their relationship is like a Nickolas Sparks novel, and Lina is the heroine.

 

They visit the Alhambra during their trip to Spain, babysit her countless nieces and nephews dreaming of their own children, dance bare feet on the beach and raise funds for the homeless. The sapphire on her engagement ring is the same shade as her eyes, and her answer is yes, after only a month of dating. She gets a wedding dress tailored, even after she finds out that he cheated on her, and excuses him on charity events, stating that ‘he’s pulling an all-nighter’.

 

She doesn’t have a single flaw and conceals his, hides his one nightstands and dirty laundry, and defends him no matter how much he hurts her. He never asks her about the diet pills in her nightstand, the loud music from the bathroom the night before an important event, the taste of bile on her tongue, barely concealed by peppermint and toothpaste.

 

Years later he realises she wanted a happy end just as badly as he did. Their wedding date is changed half a dozen times over the course of four years, officially because of his work and her training. They left the honeymoon phase long ago, but neither wants to admit it, and when he falls in love with another woman, they are happy to have a reason to break up.

 

He sees her again, on TV, talking about her triumph at the Olympics and her retreat from public, placing a gentle hand on her slightly rounded belly, the gold band a Grimaldi placed there less than a year ago flashing in the light of the cameras. Her smile is like a marshmallow, soft and sweet, and his heart aches in his chest. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hal Tudor (22-26) 
> 
> Catalina ‘Lina’ Trastamara (26-30) = Catherine of Aragon (*1485) 
> 
> Phil = Philip I of Castile (*1478) 
> 
> Rosie Tudor (*12-16) = Mary Tudor (*1496)


	3. Anais Boleyn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A tiny little bit inspired by that one episode of “How I Met Your Mother” where Ted’s girlfriend does crazy stuff and Marshall explains that every romantic gesture is either cute or creepy – depending on whether the other person is interested or not.

Anais Boleyn stumbles over him on a Halloween party. He’s sitting on the floor, flirting with a freshman in a cat woman costume, bored as hell, and she’s an angel, wearing her sister’s white, ill-fitting high heels with wings and an itching feather mask, guiding a drunk friend through the dimly lit living room of some sonority house, when his long legs are suddenly in her way. He catches her before she can hit the ground and looks into the darkest and most mysterious eyes he’s ever seen. He uses an old, flat pickup line and she looks at him like he’s retarded before dragging her friend out of the house and into an Uber. 

She’s everywhere, chatting with other students, researching something in the library, studying at the cramped artsy café that has the best cherry clafoutis in town with lilac ink on her slender fingers and purple Doc Marten’s on her feet. Finding her blog is easy, finding her Facebook profile is easier. She’s a feminist, she’s studying journalism, she’s only 19, seven years his junior, and she clearly doesn’t like him. 

He sends her syringa bouquets – she has them as wallpaper on Facebook, so he guesses they’re her favourite flowers – and poems, starts jogging around her block at five a.m. when she’s walking her border collie so he can talk to her, reads books she borrows at the library, comments every of her Facebook posts with a complement on her looks. For him, it’s a romantic challenge, for her, it’s sexual harassment. He loves her sharp tongue and wonders what she could do with it, she hates his ass and thinks about kicking it. Her uncle likes him and tries to talk her into dating him. After all, he’s going to be president one day, and she could be his first lady. She tells both of them to fuck off. 

When he tries to surprise her with a candle light dinner and a violin in her apartment after her uncle gives him the spare key, she gets a restraining order on him and goes down in his personal history as the only one he couldn’t get. He’ll never admit it, but he still goes on her blog for years, looks at photographs of her posing with Gulabi gang members, Sea Shepard activists and social workers in Paris’ banlieues. Her articles are brilliant and socio-critical, and some of them are published in the New York Times. He hopes she’ll never write about him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the kudos <3 
> 
> Hal Tudor (26) 
> 
> Anais Boleyn (19) Anne Boleyn (*1505) 
> 
> Anais’ uncle Thomas Howard (*1473)


	4. Jenny Seymour

Jenny Seymour is the sister of one of his friends, a wallflower in tweed skirts, woollen stockings, tortoise glasses and shapeless slipovers with boring braids, but when he’s annoyed by Anais’ refusal to date him, he gets drunk with Tommy in his living room. When Jenny, spending the weekend at her brother’s, comes in, her ash blonde curls framing her face, wearing contacts and a shimmering dress and needing help with its zipper, his fingers ghost over milky skin and creamy lace, and he falls for her. 

He comes to her kindergarten every day to have lunch with her – her students are napping, or her co-worker’s handling them on her own - so they have 90 minutes to talk and make out. She loves listening to him, and tries to please him, doing everything he wants. They are seen at museums, at the park, he takes her to Rosie’s ballet training and showers her in bouquets of peonies and ranunculi and platin jewellery. She makes sure to look proper and neat in flowery blouses and polka dot-dresses, her cross-necklace and Chasity ring always clearly visible. 

She’s prude, a pure maiden, and driving him mad with desire. She knows what she’s doing, and she knows what she wants. When he calls her his girlfriend in front of his friends, when someone remarks how beautiful their children would be and he admits to thinking about naming one after her favourite brother, when his sister buys her second wedding dress and he tells her that he’s looking forward to seeing her, Jenny, walk down the aisle herself, she showers him in kisses. He takes her to Miami for Margo’s wedding, talking about how she should use it as an inspiration for their own, and so she buys a sheer baby doll and tucks away her Chasity ring. If everything goes right, then it’ll be replaced by an emerald from Tiffany’s soon enough. 

For a while, their life is perfect, until Hal runs for the house of representatives. It’s the next part of his plan, his next step on his way to the white house. It’s stressful, especially when Willow, Rosie’s best friend, posts some of his campaign pictures on Instagram with quotes of fifty shades of grey and heart emojis. He sends Willow the Manalo Blahnik’s she wants – and his best photographs. A redheaded athletic 29-year-old with cheekbones sharper than diamonds, playing volley ball, holding puppies, babysitting his nephew, wearing suits like a professional model, could be a congressman, and the internet goes wild. Most of the younger voters love it, the others discuss his qualification. 

He’s not surprised when he hears the election results. Rosie calls him president McSexy in a mocking tone, and he smiles, until he sees Jenny’s face. She’s jealous and stressed out, anxiety shimmering in her eyes. Her skin is transparent, her hair thin, her nails nibbled short. She got through the campaign, but she can’t do it any longer, so she gets up and leaves, her ‘Vote Tudor’-pin forgotten on a pedestal in the entry hall. They’ll never meet again, but Tommy irregularly comments on something she did – her life’s ordinary, save, comfortable, a white picket fence and four kids – and a part of Hal never stops loving her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hal Tudor (26-29)
> 
> Jenny Seymour (23-26) Jane Seymour (*1509) 
> 
> Tommy Seymour (24-27) Thomas Seymour (*1508) 
> 
> Margo Tudor (28-31) Margaret Tudor (*1489) 
> 
> Willow Catherine Willoughby (*1519)


	5. Anita Kleve

Anita Kleve is one of the most attractive women he has ever met. He’s heartbroken over Jenny, when Hans Holbein, a photographer, sends him pictures of all his models, including her, and her beauty is enough to make him ask for her number and a date. 

It’s the worst of his life. Anita’s polite, smart and perfectly styled, a design student and part-time model with soft brown eyes and perfect manners. Hal’s still hungover, has a five ‘o’clock shadow and stares at her cleavage before introducing himself. He’s half an hour late, and the German girl is clearly disgusted. 

She grew up in Europe and only spent a semester in the US, but she wants to live in New York City and be like Andy Sachs. They chat for some time without finding a topic they both enjoy talking about. She’s not interested in politics, sports, music, he doesn’t care about fashion and cooking and art, and both of them are secretly cross with Hans for setting up this blind date. She orders a vegetarian tarte flambee and looks at his bloody steak like he just killed a puppy. 

They don’t get to order dessert. Five minutes after she returns from the restroom, her roommate calls her. According to her, it’s an emergency, Dottie needs her, she has to go, she explains while hurrying out of the restaurant. Her accent’s more prominent, and the release on her face when she leaves hurts more than the awkward moves she makes to avoid physical contact. 

‘This won’t work, we’re to different’, she texts him the next day. He responds with ‘Let’s stay friends’. He could make it work, he could be the perfect boyfriend, if he wanted to, if he made an effort, but he’s not interested in her anymore. According to her, they want different things in life, she’s not his type, they work better as friends, it’s not the right time for her to settle down. 

But he’s mad at her, and so he calls her ugly and plain, complains of her smell and says she looks like a mare, he blames Hans for introducing them and claims that the pictures he showed him were photoshopped. They meet again on the eve of Rosie’s wedding – she’s responsible for the dress - after successfully avoiding each other for almost two years, and actually have a good time. They text sometimes, he sends her Christmas cards and she gets to design some of his relatives’ dresses. She never mentions their horrible blind date, and Hal is grateful for it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hal Tudor (29) 
> 
> Anita Kleve (22) Anna von Kleve (*1515) 
> 
> Hans Holbein Hans Holbein der Jüngere (*1497)


	6. Kitty Howard

Kitty Howard is a kitten from a Disney movie – and an exotic dancer with more curves than a street in San Francisco. Hal doesn’t want to be set on a blind date again, but Carlos knows him, so when he finds a girl in his office, smuggled in by his brother-in-law, he’s not cross with him. How could he be, when he’s suddenly confronted with a pretty girl in high stockings and pink lingerie sitting on his desk between his laptop and papers. 

Being a sugar daddy is what he needs right now, calling her whenever he wants her, showering her in expensive gifts and roses, throwing parties for her and her friends, and she pretends to love him, puts on lingerie in his favourite colours and makes him pancakes. She’s a good mistress, seeing to his every need, so he’s not really annoyed when she dances through the night while he’s at home sleeping, goes on shopping trips when he’s working, pretends to be sick when he has an important event. It’s rational, he can’t officially date a teenaged stripper while he’s a senator, and it’s nothing serious at all, but there’s a sting in his heart, because he wants her to support him, to be interested in his work and career. 

He's irritated by her, by the way she clings to him and how she wants to please him, how she flinches every time a door falls shut with a bang, how her lips tremble and her fingers shake when he talks too loudly, how her movements become slow and small and painfully careful when he startles her by moving too fast, too sharp, too abrupt. When he sees her with her nieces and nephews, braiding hair and painting nails and playing with dolls, he looks away from her obvious youth. 

One day, he comes home to her crying in the shower, Marina and the diamonds blasting from the stereo to drown out her sobs, bruises forming on her arms and thighs, and all she says is the name of his secretary. Hal beats Tim Culpeper into a coma two days later and makes it look like he was mugged. They stop seeing each other after that, but he’s reminded of her quite often – she testifies against her former teacher Harry Manox, dances in the background at a super bowl show, has a YouTube channel with dance tutorials – and he hopes she’s getting the happiness she deserves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hal Tudor (30) 
> 
> Kitty Howard (18) Katherine Howard (*1523) 
> 
> Carlos (31) Charles Brandon (*1484) 
> 
> Tim Culpeper Thomas Culpeper (*1514) 
> 
> Harry Manox Henry Manox (*1515)


	7. Karen Parr

Karen Parr is like a statue made of ice and burning from the inside. They meet at one of Margo’s parties and Hal is fascinated by her wits and charm. She’s outstanding, with her hair almost as pale as moonlight, the passion in her voice filling the room, her slender hands gesturing wildly. She teaches literature in Princeton, aspires to be a writer, and when she argues with him about ‘Save Me the Waltz’, she crushes his sight of view with a sweet smile on her face, her delicate fingers wrapped around a glass of burgundy wine the colour of her lipstick and her grey eyes sparkling with the thrill of her victory. 

He wants her on his side but winning her over isn’t as easy as he thought, because this time, he actually has a rival – Tom Seymour, Jenny’s brother and one of his friends – and, as he realises soon enough, he’s at a disadvantage because she’s in love with Tom. 

It doesn’t stop him, of course, and when she catches Seymour red-handed with a prostitute in his lap, she cries into his broad chest, leaving mascara stains on his shirt, and agrees to go on a date with him. It’s his first serious relationship since Jenny, and one that shows him what having a family of his own could be like. She’s the most mature women he’s ever dated, a professor, a widow and the stepmother of a preteen. He moves into her apartment after eight months, and her daughter Peggy calls him “Uncle Harry”. 

Their life is dancing in the dim light of a candelabra, discussing art and politics at dinner parties, helping Peggy with her homework, taking long walks in galleries, painting patterns on each other’s thighs with their fingertips during theatre plays, and he’s sure he won, even when she continues seeing Tom. They’re only friends and she’s loyal, but he can’t help to be jealous, especially since he knows that Tom’s in love with her, too. 

As soon as she finds out about it, she breaks up with him. It’s a smooth and even cut, no fighting, no crying, no regrets on either side. Seeing her with Tom, their kisses and the way he touches her, doesn’t hurt as much as knowing that Seymour’s now a part of her little family, that it’s Tom who’s making her tea, who’s driving Peggy to school, who’s stumbling over their books in the hallway. It hurts, but he stays, as a friend, and when their daughter is born, he becomes her godfather and officially a part of their family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hal Tudor (34-38) 
> 
> Karen Parr (31-35) Katherine Parr (*1512) 
> 
> Tom Seymour (32-36) 
> 
> Peggy (12-16) Margaret Neville (*1525)


	8. The Ideal Woman

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gina is not based on any historical figure, she's just Hal's image of the perfect woman - and I needed him to marry so that I could include his children!

Gina Minett is a sun ray. She works at the ‘Semiplena’ agency, and being the assistant of Megan, who’s his cousin and Semiplena’s CEO, means they will bump into each other eventually. Everything is gloomy and dull the day they meet, the hectic of the city drowned out by heavy rain, and when she slips into the elevator, her golden curls bouncing on her shoulders, tanned hands wrapped around a Starbucks cup, some of the buttons of her saffron coloured blouse undone, and flashes him a broad smile, she’s Botticelli’s Venus reborn. Her eyes and her heels are the colour of the sky, her hair and the flower pins in it are made of gold, and he’ll never forget that ride. 

They get married so fast and hastily the media calls it a shotgun wedding and searches Gina’s body for any sign of a pregnancy, but he doesn’t care. He tells her to quit her job and move out of her Manhattan apartment – after their honeymoon she’s going to live in his house in D.C. – and gets her business cards with his last name on them, printed in bold metallic letters. Gina spends weeks surrounded by cake and fabric samples, she picks flower arrangements, hires a band, supervises the preparations, and between dress fittings and hysteric sisters, she almost forgets Hal’s existence. 

Her official bachelorette party is a picnic with female relatives, friends and former co-workers. They drink champagne and eat cupcakes, talk about the wedding, their plans for the future and the baby shower they will throw her – everyone is sure that she will be pregnant in less than half a year – and when some paparazzi appear, she casually pulls Rosie’s daughter into her lap and makes silly faces at the toddler. The picture of her helping a giggling Harry onto a carousel horse, with Francesca on her hip, the hem of her long blue skirt brushing the floor, is used to compare her to Lady Di, and Hal can’t stop grinning when he’s scrolling through the comments. 

The wedding ceremony is small and intimate, with only their closest friends and relatives in a 19th century sandstone church on Long Island, and the reception is held in the great mansion of Hal’s grandmother Marguerite. It’s like a Disney movie, her bridesmaids clad in honey coloured taffeta, the ball room a sea of pale peonies, the soft light bathing the guests in amber. They fly over the dance floor, her ivory skirts floating around her like a cloud, and Hal gets lost in dreams. She looks like a princess, her golden curls, shining in the candlelight, are pulled back into a bun at the nape of her neck, a thin veil pinned under a crown of enamelled orange blossoms and diamonds. Her eyes are closed, a smile graces her lips, still tasting of lemon cake and buttercream, and she hums along with the music – the band plays Elvis’ ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’ - and he’s never been happier.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hal Tudor (38) 
> 
> Regina ‘Gina’ Minett (27) Regina (Regina: lat., “queen”) Minett (Minne: ger., “courtly love”), the ideal woman (according to Hal) 
> 
> Megan Margaret Pole (1473) 
> 
> Harry (4) Henry Brandon (1516) 
> 
> Francesca (2) Frances Brandon (1517) 
> 
> Marguerite Margaret Beaufort (1443)


	9. Everything He Wished For

Hal Tudor becomes president of the united states a week before his 43rd birthday. Every detail is perfectly planned – his family is dressed in blue and white and gold, colours that agree with his steel blue suit and auburn hair, and even the weather’s matching, sunny with a clear blue sky. 

His daughter’s behaviour is flawless, May’s as shy as ever, but she smiles into the cameras, and when she meets his predecessor, she bobs a little curtsey and politely hands the former First Lady a single white rose, more elegant than any other five-year he’s ever seen, while Alisa sleeps through the trouble. 

Gina’s tired and worn-out, but her stylist managed to cover up the bags under her eyes and her thick coat hides her fragile form and the swell of her body – it’s only three months, and they want to make sure everything’s alright before announcing it – and she’s holding onto the handles of Alisa’s stroller like she’s going to faint, but she smiles at him and says everything’s fine. 

He takes the infant out for some pictures, a baby on his arm will look good, he knows, especially with precious little May holding his hand, a perfect trio of redheads clad in blue and ivory, and when he stands in front of the White House at last, his wife and daughters by his side, a son on the way and all the power in the world in his hand, he knows he finally has the perfect life. 

•

Two years later, his chauffeur has a heart attack on the way to a gala. 

When Hal wakes up after two hours, he is fine apart from his injured leg. 

There won’t be any lasting damage, the doctors say. 

•

They are wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hal Tudor (43) 
> 
> Gina Tudor (32) 
> 
> May Tudor (5) Mary Tudor (*1516) 
> 
> Alisa (6 months) Elizabeth Tudor (*1533)


	10. It Could Have Been Me

Two and a half years later, in the middle of July 

• 

Monaco-Ville, Monaco 

Saturday, 17.48 

Sunrays are dancing on the polished wooden floor, the air is filled with the scent of orange lilies and salt, the sheer drapes in front of the open balcony doors are moving slightly in the breeze coming from the sea. Lina sits in an elegant armchair – she’ll be fifty this winter, but her back is still straight, her red golden hair lined with silver, but pinned up perfectly. Time has left its mark on her, has dug lines into the corners of her mouth and between her brows, but her eyes are still as sharp and bright as they have always been. 

Now she is watching her daughters dress for tonight’s charity gala, the first they are to attend as adults, the first where they can stay until the sun rises. A smile tugs at the corner of her mouth when Isabella, the younger of the two, comes to her and asks her to do her hair. She wants to enjoy this moment – her girls’ laughter, the whirlwind of fabrics and perfume and excitement that fills the twins’ dressing room. 

Just a moment – soon enough she’ll have to deal with Gabriel, who is pouting because he is a teenager, and probably also because has to stay home, and with Jaques, who refuses to let their daughters’ go out in pretty dresses, and with politicians and journalists and… her secretary enters the room. Aurelia takes over her sister’s hair, and Lina walks over to the woman, concern floating through her as she sees her face. 

When she shows her the news on her iPad, Lina has to sit down. Then she calls her favourite designer. 

• 

Berlin, Germany 

Saturday, 18.07 

Hepburn and Kelly and Monroe, black-and-white and framed in pale gold and copper, look down on her as she puts on her opal earrings and hands the babysitter some money – the teenager brought kebabs for the girls, to bribe them into being good girls – with some last instructions. When she leaves the house and looks up, she sees the fairy lights on the railings of the French balconies and hears the first song of a Disney movie. 

The night is young, the Spree glinting down there in her bed, Moabit slowly coming to life. Anita likes this part of Berlin, and she likes her life – her work, her daughters, her hobbies and friends. It’s not what she dreamt of two decades ago, but she changed, everything changed, and she left Hollywood and it’s cold, snobby ways behind and relocated to her home country at thirty. Now she lives closer to her sisters, and she’s got Lotte and Steffi. It’s not what she dreamt of, but it’s close to paradise. 

For this night’s reception she wears a black vintage dress with a pair of matching silk gloves, huge Burberry sunglasses resting on the crown of her head, a stole of pale pink faux fur hanging low on her forearms. She looks like she just stepped out of a costume drama, like she fell out of time, but this is Berlin, and no one looks at her twice when she enters the tram, her petticoats floating around her legs and brushing over the knees of the other passengers. 

This night is going to be one of the best of her life, she knows, a night like an old Hollywood movie. Working with the ZDF turned out to be the perfect thing for her, because she loves vintage clothing, and she loves the cinema, and she loves making costumes for different roles, working tiny details into every piece, selecting patterns and colour themes that reflect both the era and the personality of the character she’s dressing up, mixing old cuts and new fabrics for interesting styles. 

Her head is full of patterns and ideas for the next series she going to work on – it’s about the reformation, and she’ll give Katharina von Bora some better clothes – when her phone rings, and he ignores the annoyed looks the other people give her, because when the princess of Monaco calls, then she has to answer. 

•

San Francisco, California 

Saturday, 9.21 

The beach is mostly empty, the air clear and salty, but the sun rose more than two hours ago. It’s burning down on her now, her top and shorts are soaked in sweat, clinging to her damp, tanned skin, her ponytail hits her back with every step she takes, her lungs burn, her legs go limb. That doesn’t mean that she’s giving up. 

The scars on her forearms and thighs have faded in the hot Californian sun, there’s gold in her auburn hair, and brown ink running down her toned back, forming intricate patterns and animal shapes and words older than this city. She’s a survivor, and she doesn’t simply give up. Her morning rituals consists of yoga, jogging, and swimming, and when Kitty makes her way up the hill after her run – and a long, icy shower in her small, but airy apartment -, standing comfortably in the back of a cable car, her muscles are sore, but she feels wide awake and ready for another day. 

Sipping on some cream and sugar with just enough coffee in it to actually call it one, she checks some blogs she likes, looking for some inspiration, to try and decide what she could do next. The dance studio and school she co-owns with her best friend, Zoe, a trendy fashionista and former model, is doing more than well, and her dance tutorials earn her enough money to support herself and her little dog, but she’s always looking for something new, something unusual, something exiting, for styles and outfits and dances she doesn’t know yet. 

She checks her WhatsApp next. Her baby cousin Tessie has sent her some sketches last night, and she grins as she looks through the row of little comic strips, but her smile falters when her phone chirps and she reads her friends text, her grip around the sticky grab pole tightens, and, without even thinking about it, she dials a number she knows by heart, and calls her cousin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Princess Catherine ‘Lina’ Trastamara (49), her husband Jaques Grimaldi (47), their twin daughters Aurelia and Isabella (18), their son Gabriel (16) 
> 
> Anita Kleve (38), Charlotte (7) and Stefanie (5) and her adoptive daughters 
> 
> Kitty Howard (33), her best friend Zoey (34)


	11. We Are The Lucky Ones

Paris, France 

Saturday, 18.39 

Paris is buzzing with life, summer is on its peak, and the windows of the small apartment with the high ceilings are left open to let in a cool breeze. The old, washed-out cushion on the broad window sill is warm and sticky, but she is high above the bustle in the streets, a silent watcher with a notepad, and her thoughts are flowing onto the paper like water flows down a river. 

Tess is fast asleep on the thick old carpet in a nest of blankets and pillows and golden hair with their dog on her arms – Anais will never understand how her daughter can sleep with their bulldog on top of her – and she looks up from the column she’s writing, or will write this night, when dusk is creeping over the hills and the city has finally found rest, when she has cooled down enough to actually form a sentence instead of incoherent pieces. 

She looks up when Urian taps over to where she sits, and she picks him up so that he can sit on her lap and look outside, brushing her dark hair out of her eyes, and hums contently, looking at the city beneath her and her daughter, who is so beautiful and strong and clever that she can’t breathe sometimes. 

Later, they will walk Urian, have a light dinner at one of the small bistros where the waiters know them by name, maybe they will go for a swim at the Bassin de La Villette, and Tess will tell her that it’s embarrassing for her to wear skirts short enough to show of her tattoos, and they will laugh about it. 

When her phone rings, she gets up, the dog still under her arm, and walks into the kitchen, not wanting to wake up Tess. When she hangs up only minutes later, she takes a few deep breaths to calm herself, before she is able to text her best friend. 

•

New York, New York 

Saturday, 12.57 

Glasses filled with Burgundian wine and champagne are clinking against each other, red heels scratching over the old wooden floors, the purring sound of the gramophone interrupted by husky laughter and flirty voices. Her parties are legendary among the New Yorker elite, and even now, in the middle of the day, her living room and library are filled with elegant figures in taffeta dresses and tuxes, and all eyes are on her. 

She looks flawless, and she knows it, likes the feeling of her flowing silk dress and the finger waves in her hair. Karen always felt invisible, too pale, too transparent, but now she knows that she’s shining brightly. The art students that Peggy invited look at her the way young men look at attractive, older, but still elegant and seemingly ageless professors, and she likes the attention, but she knows that it won’t lead anywhere. 

Her life is crazy and the contrasts are so stark that she’s sometimes no sure whether it’s real or not. There’s empty Chinese takeout boxes in the pantry, from when she and Peggy smoked in their sofa only yesterday, when Betty was over at a friend’s and they watched some old sitcoms and talked about college and work and politics, sitting right next to all the bright pink and yellow baking supplies her younger daughter uses for her endless baking sessions and the energy drinks she needs when she has to grade papers. 

Betty is staying at her babysitter’s house – Karen trusts her, really trusts her – and Peggy is entertaining their guests quite well on her own, and when she steps out onto the balcony, to get some fresh air and clear her head, she pulls out her phone to check it for any text her baby or the sitter could have sent her. The only thing she reads, however, is a short message from Paris. And then she calls her sister-in-law. 

•

Seattle 

Saturday, 10.23 

Saturdays are her favourite. It’s not like she doesn’t love her boys – she really does, she can’t imagine what her life would look like without her sons – but they are a lot of work. Helping with homework and studying, dealing with puberty and the first signs of an upcoming teenage rebellion, driving them to football practice and to drama club and to their friends, and stopping them from killing each other, while also keeping their house clean and organised, is more complicated than she had thought when she got pregnant for the first time. It’s simply stressful. 

But today’s a Saturday, and that means her husband has to entertain them for some hours, so that she can relax a bit. Warren usually takes them fishing, to the cinema, or they play football in the park. He always says that their sons could form their own team, if they had more children, and maybe it could actually be a girl this time, but Jenny thinks that four are more than enough – especially when she does the laundry and realises once more just how talented her boys are at getting dirty. 

But now she’s finished her chores so far and can enjoy a bubble bath and some romance novel, and maybe she’ll work in the garden later. She’s famous for her pale-yellow peonies, and she loves to host garden parties for her friends and the neighbours and Warren’s colleagues from the law firm. Her apron with the small ruffles and the white picket fence that surrounds their house in the suburbs are everything she ever wished for. 

The heavenly silence of the big house is interrupted by the noise of the telephone, and she hurries downstairs, tying her robe tightly around her, thinking it’s her husband, to tell her that Evan wants home or that Mickey threw a tantrum, but it’s her sister-in-law, and she’s glad she’s home alone. 

•

In the end, they all sit in front of their TVs and laptops, thousands of kilometres and worlds apart and yet tied together, staring at the screens, thinking about how the woman leaving the White House could have been them. 

Every one is glad that it isn’t her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anais Boleyn (38), her daughter Tess (17) 
> 
> Karen Parr (42), her daughters Peggy Latimer (23) and Betty Seymour (6) 
> 
> Jenny Seymour (42), her husband Warren (46), her sons Evan (14), Andrew (12), Daniel (11) and Michael (7)


	12. Their Sinking Sun

Washington D.C. 

Friday, 18.21 

She screams into the phone, telling them to do something, to do anything. They’re in the middle of the worst crisis of their career, and everyone just stands around, like a flock of zombie sheep, not knowing what to do. Can’t they see that this is an international scandal, and the press, the other leaders-of-state, their political rivals are like vultures, ready to devour them whole? 

At least she’s here, and not in Los Angeles, where she had planned to spend the summer. At least Harry, Fran and Nell are already on their way there. At least Carlos’ standing next to her. She needs him, now, and her brother needs him even more. Maybe he’ll be able to talk to him, to calm him down. She’ll do the rest, make sure that the press is distracted, that the other European presidents and politicians are kept in the dark about what happened, and then she’ll talk to the French party and get them not to do anything. 

And so, she stalks down the hallways in her crimson five-inch heels, sharp nails digging into the clipboard someone gave her, shouting commands as if she was a general instead of a ballet dancer, and they all follow her orders. When Rosie Tudor-Brandon, Instagram model, mother of three, all porcelain skin and iron spine, tells you to do something, you do it without asking. 

Her personal assistant follows closely and updates her on every information she can get her hands on – President Valois-Angoulême is fine, apart from some bruising, but furious, and his wife is trying to calm him down. The French vice-president is waiting for an official statement and promises to not talk to the press until they’ve talked about the whole incident. President Tudor has been escorted to his bedroom, where a psychiatrist is taking care of him. 

No one knows why it happened. Was there insult, or some miscommunication? Rosie doesn’t know. The only thing she knows for sure is that, less than twenty minutes ago, her brother punched the French president in the face, almost knocking him out. 

• 

Washington D.C. 

Saturday, 19.58 

The sun is sinking, after shining on them for so long. On the day of his inauguration, the sky was clear, and he told her that he was meant to stand there, out in the bright light, and she can’t help but laugh because of the symbolism. Their sun is sinking, her husband mad, and maybe she’ll go mad as well. 

His doctors and psychotherapists are still discussing the cause of his character changes – an old brain injury, some form of cancer, a mental illness, or another medical reason. Gina does not care for the cause of his unusual behaviour – that’s what they are going to call it, she knows, Margo and her sharp, lipstick-red smile and suits that gleam like polished steel, Carlos’ Hollywood flair and silver fox charm, Rosie with her picture-perfect family and decades’ worth of deception skills. 

She no longer cares for anything, she finds, but her children. Alisa and Teddy are too young to really understand what’s going on, why their father acts so strange, why they have to leave the White House so suddenly, and when they walk down the marble steps towards the car that will take them away, Alisa waves at the cameras like the little lady she is. Teddy buries his face in her shoulder, and she’s grateful for it. 

They are meet with a sea of cameras, reflecting the dying light of the sun, blinding her, and thousand voices yelling questions at her. Is it true that her husband is crazy? Did he punch the French president? Did he really threaten her with a gun? Did he really try to kill her? And Gina holds her head high, like May does, May, who is her parents’ pride and who holds her little sister’s hand to help her into her seat, and steps into the car, not looking back once. 

• 

Hal Tudor disappears. 

He steps down from his office two days after the incident with President Valois-Angoulême, retreats to his mansion on Long Island, never makes another public appearance. No one knows why, or what happened. 

He dies, ten years later, without anyone noticing. 

• 

His only legacy are his children. 

• 

May Eleanor Tudor becomes Chief Justice of the United States. 

Alisa Rose Tudor’s movies win dozens of Academy Awards. 

Theodore ‘Teddy’ Robert Tudor plays for the New York Giants. 

• 

The name ‘Tudor’ lives on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rosie Tudor-Brandon (35), Carlos Brandon (46), their children Harry (11), Francesca (9) and Nellie Brandon (6) 
> 
> Margo Tudor (46) 
> 
> Hal Tudor (45), Regina ‘Gina’ Tudor, nee Lowe (34), their children May (7), Alisa (3) and Teddy Tudor (2) 
> 
> Francis I of France (*1494) = President Valois-Angoulême

**Author's Note:**

> Hal Tudor (21) = Henry Tudor (*1491)
> 
> And thank for the kudos :)


End file.
